Bigfoot Prank Gone Horribly Wrong Part 2

Installment 2

Then he saw Richard and his big sister Lila coming out from the next house he and Steven were going to. Richard was from the same preschool class as me and so we were good friends. Lila was in Sean’s science class and frequently babysat me. Lila loved the outdoors and especially loved canoeing down the many rivers around our town. But their canoe had recently sprung a leak so Lila was stuck babysitting all the time. If she could only get a break!

“Hey Lila! Would you do me a huge favor? Please! I’ll do anything…” Sean called out to her retreating back, her Princess Leia hair just about to fall down. Little Richard stalked ahead in a Luke Skywalker costume. Figures, thought Sean.

Lila put her hands on her hips, bunching up her long white dress, her blue jeans showing underneath. “Yeah, what do you want? It’s going to cost you!”

“Okay, okay,” Sean griped. “What’s your price?”

“I get to come with you next time you go canoeing. And no kiddos. No offense you two!”

Richard and I stuck out our tongues at Lila. They laughed.

“Fine, I’ll ask my mom and dad.”

“Good! So, what do you want?”

“Would you take my little sister home? We’re not done yet.”

Steven frowned. “That doesn’t sound right. That’s not what Mom told us to do.”

“Yeah, Sean,” I cried. “I want to go with you!”

“No, Sally. Mom said you need to go home. Do you want to get in trouble?” Sean coaxed.

“Okay, fine!” Lily took me by the hand and the four of us started back down the street.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Sean,” Steven said disapprovingly, his eyes following my retreat, a soft look of fondness flickering in his blue irises.

“She’ll be fine. Lily watches her all the time. Now, I have an idea. Here’s a flashlight.” Sean handed Steven one of the two flashlights he had hidden under his costume. “Let’s sneak past the old Hackett place and then we can see what we can find in the woods. Searching by moonlight when it comes out later. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“I dunno, Sean. Sounds dangerous. And I told Brett and Trent I would meet them.”

“Oh, come on,” Sean replied, “That’s not for awhile yet. Maybe we can find coyote tracks. Sure, there are no wolves but close enough, right? Or maybe we’ll find the big guy himself…”

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah sure, Sean,” he said. Like Bigfoot isn’t a hoax or anything, he thought to himself.

He then shrugged his shoulders. The truth was, and Sean knew it, that both boys were thrill seekers. Ah that adrenaline rush gave such a feeling of living! Even if there were no such thing as monsters in the woods…

“Besides. Maybe what ‘Spock’ says is true about Sasquatch,” said Sean. “After all, this is Washington.”

“Aw that’s just a myth. Nobody has ever found any real evidence. You know what Dad says.”

“Oh, we’ll see, won’t we?” replied Sean. "In the meantime we can be legend hunters. Come on!”

Sean hopped the old battered and tottering picket fence and started to creep past the old grey Victorian house, the shutters banging in a sudden gust of wind. Steven jumped and then stood rooted to the spot, reluctant to go on. What had Sean gotten him in to?

“Hey, what are we going to do with our treats?” Steven called to Sean, suddenly unwilling to lug the big heavy bag around the woods.

“Oh yeah. Let’s just hide them on the porch and come back this way.” Sam ran back, grabbed the bags and hid them on an unseen part of the wraparound porch toward the back of the house. Then he hopped off the porch and jumped the old fence into the woods.

“Come on, bro! What, are you scared? Chicken?” Sean started to flap his arms like a chicken. “Brock brock brock.”

Well, this just wouldn’t do. Sean could not be proven to be more brave than Steven. That wouldn’t do for sure!

In the moonlight that had just risen above Sean, a grin showed on his face. Of course, Sean knew his brother would come. After all, of course Squatches did not exist. Now that wouldn’t be logical at all!

Steven hopped the fence, glancing once in a while at the strange house to his right, the dark shadowy windows staring down at him menacingly.

Was that a dark shadow that stood in the attic window? Steven jumped. That must be his imagination!

Steven quickly marched to Sean, flashlight scanning the woods. “So now where?” He asked, relieved that the old house was behind him.

“Let’s just go the way we always go. Through the woods to the other side on the trail that leads to 7-11. Then it’s a short walk over the field and through the woods again and we’ll be home and we can meet your friends. Then we can sneak back here and get our treat bags.”

Steven thought he heard a long crreeeeaaakkkk noise behind him and then a twig snap. Was that the gate? He shivered.

“Did you hear that?” asked Steven.

“What? I heard nothing.” And Sean didn’t. He was too intent on his scheme. His bud Billy should be just about in place. Sean glanced at his Seiko watch he got for his birthday last August. Sean hoped that furry gorilla suit would work. He had spent every bit of his newspaper route money on it…

Sean climbed under the barbed wire fence, his flashlight scanning ahead of him, though the full moon cast just enough light to see the forest floor. Funny. He didn’t remember a teepee structure being there the last time they were in the woods. Steven followed behind.

Snap! A sound of a twig breaking behind him. What was that? Steven turned around quickly, the flashlight piercing the woods. He thought he saw something red dash behind a tree.

“Wow, I must be losing it,” Steven thought to himself. He spun back around. Sean was several yards ahead of him. He doubled his pace, practically running.

“See anything?” said Sean, grinning to himself in the moonlight. This was going exactly as planned. Almost there.

Strange, thought Steven as he glanced to the right deep in the woods, scanning with his flashlight. How did those big branches get formed in an X shape? He didn’t remember that either from the last time they came through here. And wait, was that a huge tree upside down, stuck in the ground?!

“Look,” Sean cried. He saw a slight impression in the dirt, shaped like a foot. “What could that be?”

Tune in next week for Installment 3!